[50mhz] 9N7JO on 6m

[Lance Collister]

I am very pleased to report that I was able to complete Friday on 6m EME with Pop, YU7EF, who is in Nepal until the end of next month and using the callsign 9N7JO (in NL27qr).  We had about 6 minutes worth of window on my moonrise, and we completed in 3 minutes.  We were VERY lucky that the polarity was reciprocal for us both at the same time!  His JT65A signals were -24 dB here.  It was my 60th country worked on 6m EME, and new overall DXCC #112.

Pop is using one of the legendary ACOM 1000 amplifiers (running at about 500w output) along with a high gain 6 element homebrew antenna (YU7EF computer optimized design)constructed from materials he could find over there in Nepal.  This was my first opportunity to run a sked with Pop, and it was on his moonset, which seems to work quite well.  We don't know anything about his moonrise yet except that  he has increasing horizon elevation on azimuths greater than 90 degrees.  

Anyway, the bottom line is that Pop has put together a 6m EME station over there and it certainly is working!  Congratulations to him for overcoming one obstacle after 
another!  And of course, many thanks to K1JT, the developer of WSJT software (including the weak signal digital JT65A mode), without whom such a contact would not have been possible.  It is GREAT to see so many more DXpedition operators including 6m EME in their plans!  Now that we are at the bottom of the sunspot cycle, we are at the BEST time for 6m EME - the geomagnetic field is quiet and there is very little extra signal scattering and degredation :-)  

Good DX and 73 to all!  Lance

-- 
Lance Collister, W7GJ (ex: WN3GPL, WA3GPL, WA1JXN, WA1JXN/C6A, ZF2OC/ZF8)
P.O. Box 73
Frenchtown, MT  59834  USA
QTH: DN27UB
TEL: (406) 626-5728   
URL: http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj
2m DXCC #11, 6m DXCC #815